Formation Continue du Supérieur

The long-awaited ACA 20th Anniversary Conference was held in The Hague on 09-11 June. As usual one step ahead of current developments in international education, ACA invited the most outstanding pundits and practitioners of international mobility and internationalisation in Europe to deliberate on the future of student mobility, policies and higher education.
The secret of ACA’s continuing success in shaping higher education policy debates in Europe lies in its ability to ask the right questions and in staying loyal to its constructive esprit critique. Will our graduates become the next intellectuals? Is there any internationalisation without values? What are the drivers of mobility? Who benefits from transnational education and how can we make intercultural education work? How stratified is the world of partnerships and networks?  How should academic cooperation be approached in times of crisis in Europe?
These questions and many more dominate the discussions not only in Europe, but around the world. Over 200 people of countries as diverse as Japan and South Africa, New Zealand and Russia, the USA and Kazakhstan, China and Saudi Arabia, attended ACA’s conference and seemed to be equally preoccupied with these issues.
The 20th anniversary conference was certainly a joyful cause for celebration for ACA, its member organisations and friends. It was also a lot of hard work, especially with the new analytical frameworks being set for mobility windows and the new technology-driven educational trends being grasped.  Analyses of these topical issues will be continued in the coming months at ACA’s popular European Policy Seminars. Stay tuned.

Communication

Registration Webpage

By Bernd Wächter, Queenie (K.H.) Lam and Irina Ferencz (eds.). Bonn: Lemmens, 2012. ISBN 978-3-86856-006-0. Internationalisation and international mobility, inclusiveness, excellence and funding are themes high on the higher education agenda. There is no shortage of literature on them, and there are conferences galore devoted to them. But they are usually dealt with in isolation, which leads to a distorting ‘single issue’ view of higher education. This book – and the conference it emerged from – tried to avoid this mistake.
The book looks at the ‘inter-relationships’ between the four themes. Can a socially inclusive and responsible university also achieve academic excellence? Can only rich universities be truly international, or do universities become rich through internationalisation? Is excellence possible without strong funding, or does it presuppose it? These are only some of questions which this volume addresses. The ten contributions developed out of presentations given at the 2012 Annual Conference of the Academic Cooperation Association (ACA). The production of this book, as well as the above-mentioned conference, represent the outputs of the project The European university in the 21st century. Reconciling the social dimension, excellence, internationalisation and sustainable funding (EUSEIF), supported by the European Commission in the framework of its Lifelong Learning Programme.

‘MOOC’ stands for Massive Open Online Course, which is a form of distance learning embraced not only by traditional providers of distance learning (e.g. open universities) but also the elites that are highly visible in global rankings. The MOOCment originated from North Americas about five years ago and has rapidly spread around the world, with China, India and recently Europe, all pledging to MOOC along. They do this either by using established big-name American MOOC platforms (e.g. Coursera, edX) or constructing their own (e.g. iversity and FutureLearn in Europe; icourse in China).
MOOC enthusiasts see the movement as a revolutionary change in the world of learning. MOOC sceptics regard it as another technological hype that may soon fade away. The openness of MOOCs is also being called into question when the providers start to attach a price tag to the use of the platform, the licensed content or the certification of the learning results. Besides, some MOOCs are no longer ‘courses’, but complete degree programmes. Some MOOCs were intended for massive enrolments but have attracted only a few. With rapid developments in the MOOC world, the MOOC today may be completely different from the MOOC tomorrow and the MOOC in one country may be defined differently from one in another country, depending on the orientation of the providers and the target audiences.
Knowing that MOOCs have also caught the attention of European university leaders, national policymakers and those in EU institutions, the upcoming ACA European Policy Seminar – Making Sense of the MOOCs – seeks to unpack the concept of MOOCs, trace its developments in Europe and beyond, and to reveal the back office in the production of a MOOC with practical examples. We will also look at the geography of MOOCs and discuss whether and how MOOCs can possibly take root and blossom in Europe.
Producing MOOCs could be labour and capital intensive, although the contents are free for the learners and will probably remain so in order to continue attracting the attention of the mass. It is therefore necessary for institutional leaders to survey the changing MOOC environment, know what they are, how they could be organised and, more importantly, funded, before jumping onto the bandwagon.
As a usual practice in any ACA European Policy Seminar, we will bring together the most qualified speakers from a good mix of backgrounds to present a multidimensional picture of the subject. And we encourage open discussion, critical reflection, practical advice and friendly exchanges on this hotly debated topic.
The seminar, jointly organised with the European University Association (EUA), will be held on 10.10.2013 (Thu) in Brussels.
For this special event co-organised by ACA and EUA, we are pleased to extend the ACA members’ rate to all EUA members. More information about the fee rebate is available on the registration page.
38th in the series “European Policy Seminars” of the Academic Cooperation Association

1st World Congress on Access to Post-Secondary Education - 7th - 10th October 2013, Montreal, Canada   
Online registration now open - click here to go to the registration site!  (Simultaneous translation in French and Spanish available for plenary sessions).
Introducing the World Congress Series on Access to Post-secondary Education    
"Connecting the Unconnected"
We aim to make a tangible impact on rates of participation and success in post-secondary pathways wherever youth and adults are held back by poverty, birth and other economic and social circumstances.
The number of people participating in post-secondary education has risen globally over recent decades, but participating successfully still remains beyond the reach of many. New efforts are needed to tackle the factors that continue to hinder successful participation. The World Congress Series aims to spark a new global movement to advance opportunities in post-secondary education for all people, wherever they live or whatever their background. Our goal is to 'connect the unconnected' for collective impact. This also means addressing inadequate primary and secondary education and opportunities for adult learning.    
The first of three World Congresses will take place in Montreal, Canada in October 2013 (with two more occurring in 2015 and 2017 in different countries). The Congress will give a strong voice for students and young people and will be informed and shaped by a series of virtual and live International Student Forums (ISF) in different regions of the world. It will end with an Agenda for Action and a series of experimental projects that will be the fulcrum for work by the movement across all continents. With other global, national and local activities in between the three major events, the World Congress series will progressively build and enact an agenda for change.    
The Congress is an initiatve of the European Access Network. More information can be found on the World Congress website: www.eanworldcongress.org.

23rd Annual Conference, University of Edinburgh, Scotland  2-5 June 2014
The EAN annual conference represents a unique international experience of diversity in action. Hosted each year by a different member institution or organisation in Europe, the conference brings together policy-makers, academics, practitioners, researchers, and administrators from around the world to address key issues in access and widening participation, diversity and inclusion. It also engages the participation of students, student support services, student organisations and employers.
Our annual conference provides a platform and opportunity for those committed to equity, diversity and inclusion to discuss and debate topical issues, learn from one another, develop initiatives and make new European and international contacts. In particular it aims:

• To stimulate European and international collaboration to widen access and participation
• To share experiences and promote good practice in creating an inclusive higher education
• To disseminate research findings to a wider audience
• To contribute to the development of equitable tertiary education systems in Europe and beyond

The Access Evolution: Adapt to Survive?
June 2013, 22nd Annual Conference at the Council of Europe, Strasbourg, France
Access to Higher Education: Is It a Right, a Privilege, or a Necessity
June 2012, 21st Annual Conference at University of Zagreb, Croatia
Student Diversity in Higher Education: Conflicting Realities
June 2011, 20th Anniversary Conference at VU University in Amsterdam, The Netherlands
From Access to Success: Closing the Knowledge Divide
June 2010, 19th Annual Conference at Södertörn University in Stockholm, Sweden
Past Conferences.

Access, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion - The four pillars of the EAN
The European Access Network encourages wider access to higher education for those who are currently under-represented, whether for reasons of gender, ethnic origin, nationality, age, disability, family background, vocational training, geographic location, or earlier educational disadvantage. The EAN is the only European-wide, non-governmental organisation for widening participation in higher education. It is organised for educational purposes and operates under English Law. Membership is open to all those with an interest in widening access. The EAN's objectives are:

    * to promote effective policies and negotiate resources for wider participation in higher education
    * to undertake collaborative research and development programmes on access issues
    * to share information on, and provide mutual support for, access developments
    * to co-operate with other international and national bodies to promote wider participation
    * to analyse access philosophy within and between member states
    * to share pedagogical strategies and multi-cultural curriculum approaches
    * to explore professional and political issues which promote wider participation
    * to encourage international exchanges among access students and staff

Download the EAN Constitution (PDF document).

The latest edition of the IAU Horizons (Vol. 19 No.2) is now available online.
The In Focus section of the magazine includes 14 papers focusing on Innovative Approaches to Doctoral Education in Africa.By Chrissie Boughey and Sioux McKenna, Rhodes University, South Africa (C.Boughey@ru.ac.za). Participation rates and dropout rates for doctoral education are of concern globally but they are particularly dismal on the continent of Africa where the need for economic development and knowledge production is acute. These demands require that we scrutinise the challenges facing doctoral education and reconsider some of our established practices.
In South Africa, two recent publications have put the issue of doctoral education squarely on the higher education agenda. The CHE/CREST report on postgraduate study (2009) and the ASSAf report entitled The PhD Study (2010) both highlighted concerns about the way in which doctoral education is approached in the country.
In particular, these reports suggested the need for serious reflection on the ways in which doctoral education is undertaken in the broad areas of humanities and social sciences (HSS). One of the findings was that the traditional apprenticeship model, favoured in HSS, might not be the most efficient way to approach supervision. The traditional model relies on the relationship between the doctoral candidate and her supervisor as the main, or only, structure within which the research work is undertaken.
Such reliance assumes a level of experience and broad range of expertise in the supervisor that many novice supervisors may not have. It also assumes that the supervisor has access to a supportive disciplinary network with whom she/he can share her/his concerns and that the PhD student has a similar environment in which she/he can test out her/his ideas and develop her/his doctoral voice. The CHE/CREST report and the ASSAf report, along with a number of other similar reports, suggest that such assumptions are misplaced.
Furthermore, where the entire PhD journey is a private one between student and supervisor or supervisors, there is little opportunity for the student to be exposed to disciplinary concerns or to research approaches beyond those of her own study. The assumption that students will be exposed to such matters through the wider intellectual environment of the university or by attending conferences relies on the concept of full-time students with access to funding.
One newly established doctoral programme in Higher Education Studies at Rhodes University has been developed with these concerns in mind. While the PhD is, by its very nature, a single-authored piece of work whereby the individual student is examined by her/his peers, there are multiple benefits to undertaking such work within a community with shared interests. A community allows for deeper knowledge through shared endeavours. It provides a space for scholars to participate legitimately in conversations with others who are similarly engaged as well as with those who are already members of the disciplinary community and are now experienced researchers and supervisors.
The Doctoral Programme in Higher Education Studies was launched in January 2010. In 2013, the programme comprises 29 PhD scholars and 8 ‘Pre-Docs’ – candidates judged not to be ready for full registration at doctoral level and who are given the opportunity of engaging with structured reading and writing within the Programme overall. All candidates are, with just one exception, full-time academics at universities and are undertaking their doctoral studies on a part-time basis. Ten of the 23 public South African universities are represented in the student body as well as one academic from the private sector. There are also scholars from Malawi, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and the United Arab Emirates. Co-supervisors on the programme come from seven South African universities beyond Rhodes University where the programme is housed. This diversity enhances the potential for engagement and for research that moves beyond the narrow confines of each scholar’s own context of practice.
The development of the programme is in part a response to the national need for more doctoral graduates, which has resulted in targeted outputs being set by the government and the National Research Foundation. It is also in response to the concerns about low doctoral participation rates. But alongside these and other driving forces, the key push behind the development of the programme has been the provision of a community of practice that works against the ‘lonely space’ of the doctoral journey.
In South Africa, the doctorate is by full thesis only and no coursework can provide credits towards the qualification. The structures of the programme are thus not about accumulating credits but rather are about supporting the development of the research design, undertaking the research and writing the thesis. These structures include three ‘Doc Weeks’ a year that include guest seminars, debates, panel discussions, student presentations, workshops and so on. There is also a vibrant online classroom where academic readings are shared, controversial news items are deliberated upon, questions are asked and support is provided. Advisory panels, online meetings and other structures augment traditional supervision relationships and are all developed to give the scholars and supervisors a sense of belonging to a broader community.
Participation in these structures is voluntary. The excellent attendance at ‘Doc Weeks’, despite the financial implications of travelling long distances and taking leave from work, indicates that scholars are finding the support useful. Evaluations speak to a sense of ‘being part of a group’ and ‘all being in this together, looking out for one another’. Such structures require that the supervisors see the benefits of working with students within a community and are willing to participate to this community beyond their own individual supervision responsibilities. They benefit from having a whole network of people supporting and encouraging their students.
Tackling problems in doctoral education in South Africa will require a multi-pronged engagement but we believe that reconsidering the structure of the relationships of those involved is a good starting point.

The latest edition of the IAU Horizons (Vol. 19 No.2) is now available online.
The In Focus section of the magazine includes 14 papers focusing on Innovative Approaches to Doctoral Education in Africa.
By Chrissie Boughey and Sioux McKenna, Rhodes University, South Africa (C.Boughey@ru.ac.za). Since 1994, the focus in South African higher education has been on the need to transform the fractured, unequal system of apartheid into a single coherent system that would serve all South Africans equally. In spite of the enormous amount of work which has gone into developing and implementing policies since that time, many of the old divides still remain, one of which relates to the capacity to produce research.
A small number of universities continue to produce the great majority of research outputs. These universities (Cape Town, Stellenbosch, the Witwatersrand, Pretoria and KwaZulu-Natal) produce more than 60% of articles published in accredited journals. The three most productive universities on a per capita basis are Cape Town, Stellenbosch and Rhodes. These also happen to be the universities with the highest proportion of doctoral graduates on their staff. All these research productive universities are historically white and have benefitted from the resourcing and prestige afforded to them under apartheid.
A report produced in 2010 by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) makes a compelling case for increasing the number of doctoral graduates in the country if South Africa is to be able to compete meaningfully in a globalised economy. South Africa needs more doctoral graduates if it is to be able to compete yet, in a country striving for more equality, where are these graduates going to come from given that old divides of privilege appear to continue? Clearly the production of doctoral graduations needs to be increased and, importantly, evened out across the higher education system. The ASSAf report mentioned above, shows traditional universities (as opposed to universities of technology or ‘comprehensive’ universities – institutions offering a mix of vocational and disciplinary based programmes) as producing 80% of all doctoral graduates in the country.
Over the years, a number of alternative models of doctoral training have been developed in addition to the traditional oneon- one supervision of a piece of original research. These include doctorates by publication, taught doctoral programmes and the ‘professional’ doctorate which usually has specific outcomes. All require supervision of the doctoral candidate in some form, however, and it is here that the system often falls down.
Many supervisors supervise on the basis of their own experience of being supervised omitting to consider that the students they are now working with are very different to those who worked beside them in the past. In South Africa especially, the notion of ‘under preparedness’ continues right up to doctoral level and supervisors may be challenged by their students’ ability to work independently or even to write at an appropriate level. Students may also be more likely to pursue doctoral study on a part time basis and will need to juggle multiple demands in addition to those imposed by their research. What does all this mean for supervision and the supervisor who needs to guide her student?
It is not only ‘new’ students who have challenged supervision, however. New orientations to knowledge production along with an increased interest in interdisciplinarity may mean that supervisors are challenged at a methodological level by the projects their students want to pursue. Given these considerations, it is clear that an intervention with supervisors offers the promise of meeting many of the challenges involved in producing more doctoral graduates in South Africa. It is here that a recently developed course on doctoral supervision aims to play a role.
The course has been developed by a consortium of South African universities (Rhodes, Stellenbosch, Cape Town and Fort Hare) along with Dutch partners from the Vrije University of Amsterdam, the African Studies Centre in Leiden and the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. The development and roll out of the course has been funded by the Dutch government under the auspices of NUFFIC. Rhodes University is the lead partner in the project.
The course, which comprises three phases – an initial four day face to face workshop, a six week period of online engagement and a further three days of face to face teaching, has been piloted at three universities. Feedback from the pilots will be used to revise materials whereafter the roll out to other universities will commence. Dutch funding currently allows for the course to be offered free of charge to 18 of the 23 South African universities although attempts are now in progress to raise funding for all institutions to have the opportunity of the course being offered on their campus under the auspices of the project. Significantly, the course carries a Creative Commons license which means that any university will be able to use the materials on a non-profit basis to benefit its own staff in the future.
Response at the launch of the course at the National Research Foundation in Pretoria in November 2012 was extremely positive. Interest has also been indicated from universities beyond the borders of South Africa and, if funding becomes available, the consortium will be glad to respond.